A law that is intended to make us all safer by ensuring public venues have basic security in place to deter deal with attacks has had its first reading in Parliament
Martyn’s law named after Martyn Hett.one of the twenty two people who died in the 2017 terrorist attack on Manchester Arena has been delayed due mainly to concerns of venues in its implementation
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, will require all venues with a capacity of more than 200 to take steps to ensure
they have a plan in place in case of an attack on their premises.
There will be different requirements for premises, based on the number of people they can hold.
Venues with a capacity of between 100 and 799 will be considered ‘standard tier’, and those with a higher capacity of 800 will be classed as an ‘enhanced tier’.
Within ‘standard tier’, venues will need to undertake low-cost effective measures such as training, information sharing, and completion of a preparedness plan.
Meanwhile, ‘enhanced tier’ premises will be required to undertake an additional risk assessment that will inform the development and implementation of a thorough security plan.
On this year’s anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing, Martyn Hett’s mum, Figen Murray, completed a 186 mile walk from Manchester to Downing Street to ask the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to fulfill his promise of introducing the law which he promised would happen before the summer recess
Sunak called the election on that same day but the bill was subsequently included in the Labour Party’s Kings Speech
